Spoilers!

Occasional Superheroine asks the question Do Spoilers Spoil a Comic?, as in "Is there a point to actually buying a comic once you've been spoiled?"

She makes an interesting distinction between books that are good in other ways and books that really aren't apart from providing that sort of surprise (you really only get them in order to find out what happens).

Now, I read spoilers. Books I get, books I don't get, if I think they might be interesting I will read them.

I might have a different approach if I got my comics on a weekly basis, but then again I don't stop reading spoilers when it's the last week of the month and I know my comics are on their way, so I might not.

Does it affect the amount of money the comic companies get from me? Well, no. I've already placed my order a couple of months before spoilers for those books are going to appear, so I'm getting them anyway. Would I still get them if I got them from a local shop? Again, yes, assuming that I had a pull list (obviously if I've pre-ordered something I'm going to buy it when it arrives!). The only thing spoilers might affect would be extra purchases, and that would be in a positive manner because I'd be adding, not subtracting from my total.

I've added new titles to my get list because I've seen spoilers of those titles.

I've gone out and purchased trade paperbacks because I've seen old spoilers.

I've even ordered back issues because I've seen spoilers of a particular issue.

Now, that all has to do with adding books.

As far as deciding to stop getting books I already get, that decision is always made after actually reading a book that I have in hand. (I suppose that's obvious.)

I guess the only place where spoilers would keep me from spending money would be where I had been considering adding a book to my get list, and decided against it after seeing the spoilers. But, you know, that would be if the spoilers indicated that the book kind of sucked. If the spoilers indicated that it was good, they'd more likely influence me to get it. That's not the spoiler concept at work, that's something else.